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Williamstown woman set to earn Rowan University degree in honor of late son

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April Lee, from Williamstown, stands in her son's, Alfred "Will" Lee III, bedroom that is decorated in his memory, Monday, May 13, 2013. He passed away in May of 2010 and would have graduated from Williamstown High School this year. She will be graduating from Rowan University with her second master's degree on Friday.
((Staff Photo by Tim Hawk/South Jersey Times))

GLASSBORO — For a Rowan student receiving her second master’s degree on Thursday, the spring of 2013 was not expected to be a time to celebrate her own accomplishments.

April Lee, 42, has been a teacher in both the Williamstown and Lindenwold school districts for a number of years. She was living the typical family life as the mother of two sons, one a blossoming athlete at Williamstown High School.

With undergraduate degrees in English and African-American Studies, along with a graduate degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Management, she was comfortable living her life as a teacher in southern New Jersey while she raised a family.

Then, in 2010, she received devastating news that would inevitably change the way she looked at her life and her career.

Her 15-year-old son Will Lee, who was a devoted basketball player as a freshman in high school, was diagnosed with a brain tumor on March 26, 2010, after seeking medical assistance for the headaches and back pain he had been experiencing.

After battling the disease for almost two months, Will died before having a chance to don the cap and gown that his mother was looking forward to seeing him wear.

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Now, in the same year that Will would have been graduating from high school, April Lee is an awkward handshake and a flip of the tassel away from severing her ties to teaching and becoming a career and guidance counselor for teenagers instead.

“I wanted this year to be a happy year,” said Lee. “I had to somehow move forward and I felt like, staying in my same job and doing the same things I was doing, I wasn’t growing and moving forward.

“Not only for myself, but for him to be proud of me.”

The Williamstown resident said her motivation to walk with Rowan’s graduate class of 2013 comes from her son’s determination to become a dedicated basketball player.

“He was very focused. I knew I wanted to do more, and he always told me, ‘Mom, you can do whatever you want to do,’ ” Lee recalled in an interview last week.

The devoted mother had coached, trained and brought her son to basketball showcases all along the East Coast ever since he was in kindergarten. She now runs a non-profit organization in his honor called the BBall For Life Foundation, which is offering its first scholarships this June to two student athletes from Williamstown and Lindenwold.

Her focus has become so embedded in being able to help teenagers shape their potential futures that she started a camp for teens at her local church to talk about college and career planning.

“I’m really passionate about it because I see so many in the community who think that ‘College is not for me,’ ” said Lee.

For Lee, who admitted that she originally started off as a psychology major before moving into the education field, this change was as much for her as it is for her to honor her son’s words that she could do anything she wanted.

So on May 16, when she’s surrounded by students who are 20 years her junior, she wants the day to represent the fact that your career and lifestyle don’t have to stop evolving in your later years.

“To continue to show them that learning never stops, I think that’s the best part — to be able to sit among younger people, and for them to see me and realize it’s never too late,” Lee stated.